Next weekend will see the 13th running of the Thunderhill 25 hours with a varied 63 car grid in six classes ready to take the green flag on December 5 for twice round the clock and an hour over the 2.86-mile, 15-turn track located 90-minutes north of Sacramento.
In the ES class, Wolf Cars and One Motorsports are sure to be at the front of the field throughout the weekend.
Wolf Cars North America is coming back with their GB08MJ for team owner, Miles Jackson, IndyCar Champion Al Unser Jr., Pro Drive Racing School owner Todd Harris and Factory Honda Driver Ryan Eversley. The team has made extensive changes to the Wolf and are ready for the 25.
“The car we are racing this year is the same Wolf GB08MJ chassis that we ran last year, but with Honda power,” Brian Roberts, director of operations, Wolf Cars N.A. said. “The Wolf GB08MJ is a single seat sports racer built in Italy, with a full tunnel floor for aerodynamic down force. The engine is a Honda Racing, HPD Formula Atlantic built K20, 2-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder.”
The Wolf GB08MJ has been very competitive the last two years at Thunderhill.
“We evaluated the issues from the last two years and put a different overall formula together,” Roberts continued. “More like the story of the tortoise and the hare, we just replaced the tortoise with a Wolf.
“We are happy now to be working with Honda Racing. We have a reliable Honda power plant. The K20 has been used in many of the CN cars from Europe and has powered those cars with great reliability. We are focused on reliability and fuel consumption. We have a lot of planning, preparation and testing of all the systems and components for many types of conditions to be ready for December.
“Talented, smart drivers and crew keeps everyone on task. You can’t win if you don’t finish. The biggest obstacle for most teams at the 25, including ourselves, is getting to the finish and keeping the car out of any on-track incidents. You can’t work on going faster if you are fixing damage on the car.”
Another formidable contender every year is One Motorsports with their ultra-nimble Radical.
“We are running one car this year in the 25 hours with drivers John Falb, Todd Slusher, Sean Rayhall and myself,” said Jeff Shafer, team owner. “We have prepared this year by running the car more in testing than we ever have before. As in past years, we are planning for the best but preparing for the worst. Our biggest obstacle will be the unknown, you never seem to know until it’s happening. It could be the wet or the cold or our car or other cars. We are just trying to be prepared for any situation.”
There are two of the all new NASA/Elan developed NP01 race cars entered for the 25. The team at NASA/Elán NP01 Prototype Team #01 is taking a unique approach to developing their driver line-up for the twice around the clock plus one hour event next month.
“We will be holding an open test on Wednesday, November 25 at The Thermal Club to test drivers for the race,” Drake Kemper, team manager said. “We are going to be basing the test on four main aspects, consistency, smart decision making, overall speed, and attitude. We are documenting the complete event, from building the car to the test and through the race weekend.”
Jerry Kunzman, NASA executive director, is pleased with the quality and quantity of entries.
“I think this grid will be the strongest we have seen in the 13 years of running the the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill presented by Hawk Performance,” Kunzman said. “We have the defending champions Davidson Racing coming back. The Flying Lizard team members with Toyo Tires support this year have a lot of experience running the 25 and there are great cars and teams in in each of the six classes.”
Entry List
61 E0 RoadShagger Racing 1 1995 BMW M3
65 E0 Bullet Motorsport 1 2004 BMW 330Ci
44 E0 Team Valkyrie Autosport 2003 Nissan 350Z
15 E0 CA Sport Nissan #3 2012 Nissan 370Z
33 E0 CA Sport / Nissan / Nismo Nissan 2013 Nissan 370Z
7 E0 CA Sport Mazda USA 07 2016 Mazda Global MX-5 Cup
55 E0 Mazda USA 55 2016 Mazda Global MX-5 Cup
56 E0 Mazda USA 56 2015 Mazda Global MX-5 Cup
70 E0 Mazda USA 70 2016 Mazda Global MX-5 Cup
30 E0 El Diablo Motorsports 2001 BMW 325
95 E1 Grip Racing 95 2002 BMW 330ci
0 E1 Grip Racing 0 2001 BMW 330ci
46 E1 ART Racing 2001 BMW 330Ci
42 E1 THRW/Honda Racing 1 2012 Honda Civic
14 E1 Technik HQ Autosport/Active PDF 2003 BMW 330ci
9 E1 Bloising Saddles Racing 1998 BMW M3
66 E1 Bullet Motorsport 2 2004 BMW 330i
34 E2 RDR 2004 Mazda RX-8
84 E2 Team rbankracing.com1 1999 SAAB 9-3
32 E2 Team Gone Racing 1996 Mazda Miata
11 E3 Momentary Racing 1991 Mazda Miata MX-5
23 E3 RJ Racing 1995 Mazda Miata
92 E3 Team rbankracing.com2 1991 HONDA CIVIC
40 E3 RAmotorsports40 1999 Mazda Miata
35 E3 RAmotorsports35 1990 Mazda Miata
60 E3 A+ Racing Old Timers 1994 Mazda Miata
49 E3 A+ Racing Johnny’s Kids 1994 Mazda Miata
7 E3 AUGERSMILES.COM/NEW YORK ROCK EXchang3 1991 Acura Integra
13 E3 SP Racing #35 1999 Mazda Miata
12 E3 HPD Honda Racing 1 2009 Honda Fit
36 E3 SP Racing #36 1994 Mazda MIata
16 ES Davidson Racing (Eagle) 2014 DR Eagle
3 ES Team Quick Racing Products 2012 Superlite SLC
25 ES V/M Racing 2007 Lotus Exige
06 ES Stammer Inc./Bavarian Performance 2002 BMW M3
48 ES Flying Lizard Motorsports 2 Toyo Tyres 2010 Porsche RSR
21 ES Yost Autosport/BC Racing/Achilles Radial 2008 BMW M3
94 ES Brian Angen Memorial 2001 Panoz GTS
27 ES THRW/Acura Motorsports 1 2016 Acura ILX
28 ES THRW/Acura Motorsports 2 2016 Acura ILX (2)
18 ES SpeedTrixx 2012 Porsche GT3 cup
82 ES Cervelli Technical Service #482 1997 Porsche Boxster
81 ES Cervelli Technical Service #481 1999 Porsche Boxster
31 ES GOGOGEAR.COM / UTI 2006 Scion TC
52 ESR JFC Racing 2014 Wolf GB08MJ-K20
17 ESR Racing-HPD Davidson Racing (BMW) 2008 Norma M20F BMW
8 ESR Ryno Racing Team 1 2015 Ginetta LMP3 Car 1
5 ESR Ryno Racing Team 2 2015 Ginetta LMP3 Car 2
54 ESR JFC Racing 2 (p) 2013 Wolf GB08S
63 ESR ONE Motorsports 1 2011 Radical SR3
67 ESR ONE Motorsports 2004 Radical SR3
20 ESR Ryno Racing Team 3 2015 Ginetta LMP3 Car 3
10 ESR CRE / Jackson Racing / AIM 2013 Catfish CRE-01R
99 NP01 Elan NP01 Team #1 2016 Elan NP01
6 NP01 CLP Motorsports NP01 2015 Elan/NAS NP01
1 NP01 Croiset Racing Toyo Tires NP01 2016 Elan NP01
22 El Dorado Motorsports 1995 Honda Prelude
45 Flying Lizard Motorsports/ TOYO Tires 2014 Audi R8LMS
86 Kleenblast / David Racing Products 2015 Chevy Camaro
03 Edge “Last Minute” Motorworks 1995 BMW M3
0 Edge Motorworks Award Motorsports 2013 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup
74 Award Motorsports RaceWerkz 2008 BMW M3
64 Team Brown/Hyer 1993 Mazda Miata
4 Prototype Development Group 2010 Factory Fi GTM
69 Gryphon Racing 2014 Praga R1
